]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/cakes-n-treats-update/feed/0fatgayveganBeyond veganismhttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/beyond-veganism/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/beyond-veganism/#commentsMon, 09 Jun 2014 09:53:57 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3637Continue reading →]]>Maybe you saw the homophobic tweet posted to the Beyond Meat Twitter accountsometime over the last 48 hours. I found it very upsetting and have reproduced it below for the sake of this post.

(Above used with permission of Twitter user)

I found it shocking, upsetting and a complete curveball to see something so blatantly homophobic posted on a social media account of one of the biggest (the biggest?) new vegan companies on the planet.

The response from Beyond Meat was suitably swift and full of emotion. The company worked quickly and decisively to rectify the situation best they could, reaching out to every single person who expressed concern with a response similar to the one they sent me.

Unlike many company apologies due to social media scandals, I personally take the Beyond Meat response and apology to be sincere and heartfelt. If they are guilty of anything, I believe it is outsourcing or not keeping a tight enough hold on their social media.

They are responsible for the above situation. There is no getting around that, but it does appear to me they are attempting to take responsibility for a situation that upset countless people and could have caused irreparable damage to their brand.

Even though this homophobic tweet took me by surprise, I have noticed a pattern in the Beyond Meat Twitter timeline that highlighted that maybe their best person wasn’t on the job.

If you are working with or on behalf of a vegan company, you need to know your stuff. Obviously not as damaging as the homophobic tweet, but in my opinion still embarrassing, was the Twitter exchange with celebrated activist and writer Carol J. Adams.

Adams, who is a longstanding legend to many in the vegan community and beyond, was congratulated by the Beyond Meat Twitter account on what it perceived to be her recent decision to switch to a vegan diet and was rewarded with a voucher for a free product.

Adams clearly took the mistake in good-humoured stride and thanked the company for their generosity. I include this exchange here to show how easy it is for a company to lose credibility within its core customers by employing people to be a public voice who are not in touch with its core ethics or audience.

Hopefully this latest Twitter storm will have shown Beyond Meat how crucial it is to employ trustworthy, aware, compassionate and progressive people to be their voice of social media.

SO, that’s the end of that chapter. Let’s move on.

I was offended by the Beyond Meat tweet so I publicly reached out to them about the content of the tweet. They responded in a way that made me feel heard and understood. This transparent process is how it should be. Beyond Meat took responsibility for the situation and didn’t once try to diminish the severity of the situation. They didn’t play the ‘but we are vegan so we are nice’ card for a moment.

But others did.

Following on from my initial tweet about the homophobic message, I received a number of responses telling me it was no big deal or how wonderful Beyond Meat are to animals. Take for instance this message sent to me from one of the founders of vegan restaurant chain Veggie Grill.

(Please note: this message seems to have more parts but they have been deleted by the sender)

Veggie Grill want to give a character reference for the founder of Beyond Meat. Good for them. I understand. But telling me Ethan is a friend to animals as a response to my concern of a homophobic tweet makes me feel belittled and offended.

My reaction to a homophobic tweet has nothing to do with how compassionate to animals Ethan of Beyond Meat is or is not. If he was not in charge of a groundbreaking vegan company, would the tweet from his company be suddenly more offensive?

I think Ethan is doing a fine job of tackling this issue and such apologetic messages from his supporters appear to be using his veganism as a way to negate the impact of the original offensive tweet. I think he would be best left to fight his own battles.

Veganism does not stand alone. There are many issues and social problems that intersect. When someone calls out a vegan for being sexist, homophobic or racist it is extremely unhelpful to use veganism as a get out of jail free card or a way to lessen the blow.

As a shining example of this, I leave you with a message sent to me by somebody running the PETA UK Twitter account. I raised a concern publicly that I found a lot of their campaigns to be sexist and damaging to society.

The response I got was a classic example of trying to shut a concerned person down by playing the compassionate vegan card, except this time they also told me I was not helping animals by targeting their sexism.

Vegan companies can and should take responsibility for non-inclusive language and actions, no matter how many animals they have saved.

]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/beyond-veganism/feed/21fatgayveganhomo tweetbymt responseBeyond Meat blunderveggie grill defensepeta dmLearn to bosshttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/learn-to-boss/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/learn-to-boss/#respondSun, 08 Jun 2014 07:14:11 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3634Continue reading →]]>We all know about the fabulous Made in Hackney, right? This community-concerned kitchen is an invaluable source of information about plant based eating for local residents via a whole host of workshops and classes.

The centre offers discounted courses to people experiencing financial hardship. These courses are in part made possible by some of the full-priced classes hosted by Made in Hackney. This is a great way of making sure everyone has access to information about vegan food, no matter what their economic status.

One of these full price classes is a weekend long, hands on experience for people looking to start their own small food company. It sounds thorough and extremely valuable.

The Making to Sell Intensive Weekender will cover:

Becoming an ethical small scale producer

Product presentation

Branding

Securing retailers

Sourcing local/ethical ingredients

The legal bits

This sounds like a perfect course for someone looking to start or expand a vegan home food business or market stall.

Taking place on June 14 and 15, the cost for the weekend is £65 (£52 Concession) including a free organic lunch.

All the information about the course and how to book can be found by clicking here.

Go get schooled and start some vegan businesses, London. We need you!

]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/learn-to-boss/feed/0fatgayveganHow to: FGV popcornhttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/how-to-fgv-popcorn/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/how-to-fgv-popcorn/#respondSat, 07 Jun 2014 10:27:25 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3630Continue reading →]]>A few days a go I posted some photos on my Instagram account of the best popcorn I have ever made. It garnered such a positive response online (and then again when I served it at London Vegan Potluck) that I have been compelled to share my secrets with you.

Wanna eat popcorn like a fat, gay vegan? Read on.

If you visit my blog often, you will be aware that I am not one for sharing recipes. It’s not my thing. The majority of my own food creations are random experiments and the dishes that work out OK or better end up on Twitter and Instagram.

With that disclaimer out of the way, the measurements below are more of a rough guide. It will be up to you to find the right balance for your taste.

Grind all of the ingredients into a fine powder. The trick is to get the nutritional yeast as powder-like as possible, making it easier for it to stick to your hot popcorn. A pestle and mortar will get the job done in under a minute.

Cook your popcorn as per instructions. This recipe will only work for popcorn cooked in hot oil as the moisture and heat of the the freshly popped corn will allow the dry ingredients to stick.

As soon as the popcorn is cooked, empty it into a large bowl and sprinkle with half of your ground topping. Cover your bowl with a large dinner plate or lid and shake vigourously. This will disperse the topping evenly.

]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/how-to-fgv-popcorn/feed/0fatgayveganSay goodbye to the Tarthttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/say-goodbye-to-the-tart/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/say-goodbye-to-the-tart/#commentsFri, 06 Jun 2014 18:08:28 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3626Continue reading →]]>I’m not sure how much more I can take of my favourite vegan food suppliers disappearing or retreating from public life. If I start losing weight, you will know who to blame. Come on vegan food makers, this FGV needs you.

First Safclosed up for good, then The Mighty Forkstopped trading and now I find out one of the best vegan bakers in the city is set to stop trading in Brixton.

Dumisani and Andy are the people behind The Vegan Tart. Anyone who has strolled around Brixton market will know of the colourful stall overflowing with gorgeous baked goods. Their creations are so well loved they scooped the top prize at the Great Brixton Bake Off, as well as the snatching the top gong in the Best Savoury category.

I reached out to Dumisani to find out what was behind this disappearing act and his response indicates it isn’t all doom and gloom:

We’re supplying 2 shops now, Lazy Rhubarb in Tulse Hill and Lady Dinah’s in Shoreditch (FGV says, “Boo!“) and they’ve been keeping us busy. Lady’s Dinah’s we supply twice a week and they’ve increased their order since starting with us. With that and more personal orders coming in we’ve been stretched and decided that we just don’t have the time to keep doing Brixton market as well. We’ll hopefully do one off markets and events still but just not Brixton regularly. So Saturday will be the last chance at least for a while to buy from us there but The Vegan Tart will still be available at shops and for personal orders. –Dumisani

So it seems Brixton has lost one of its favourite foodie stalls, but cake aficionados can still get their fill of The Vegan Tart by ordering online.

Pop down to Brixton market this Saturday (June 7, 2014) to wish Dumisani and Andy all the best in their future endeavours.

I am thrilled to have just confirmed Australian band Love Like Hate as performers at this year’s event.

Brisbane-based (FGV’s hometown!) band Love Like Hate are a duo combining post punk electric guitars with free form piano melodies to create a sound described as dark pop. Currently touring Europe on the release of their single Electric Ships from the upcoming second EP, Heather and Sonja have made special arrangements to be part of the biggest vegan party of the year.

Check out the music video for their fab song Electric Ships below then buy your super cheap London Vegan Beer Fest early bird tickets now.

]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/love-like-hate/feed/0fatgayveganLove Like Hate B&WDonuts, dumplings and hot damnhttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/moncai-san-diego-vegan/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/04/moncai-san-diego-vegan/#respondWed, 04 Jun 2014 10:32:50 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3613Continue reading →]]>Enough with the torturous posts about divine food half a world away from where the majority of my readers reside. I will stop teasing.

Well, I will stop after this post. I promise.

I have given you some decidedly convincing reasons why you should visit San Diego. The Southern California city is a gorgeous location bursting with attractions that will keep compassionate people on the delirious side of happy. See the vegan drive thru and the vegan market stall as examples.

And there is more.

Moncai Vegan is exactly what I see when I close my eyes at night. It is like the dream I have where the food is irresistible, the service is lovely and there are vegan donuts in a large glass case.

My starter set the bar at such a height, I honestly didn’t think it would be raised or surpassed. I was wrong. The cabbage soup was the best soup I think I have ever enjoyed but it still wasn’t the nicest thing Moncai fed me during my visit.

The bourbon and brown sugar glazed roasted Brussels sprouts were perfect. I would have eaten ten times the amount they served me. As it was, I was drinking the sweet and boozy glaze from the serving dish.

My main course wanted me to know the soup and the sprouts were just pretenders to the throne. The vegan chicken and dumplings in a bowl almost had me in tears of happiness. Soft, chewy dough balls were mixed through a vegetable-packed, creamy chicken stewed sauce.

Then the donuts.

The donut case is not something a person struggling with a sugar addiction needs to see, so it’s a good thing I fully embrace mine. Donuts of all shapes, colours and flavours jostled for my attention next to jumbo cinnamon swirls. It was a tough call, but I settled for a maple glaze donut topped with a vegan marshmallow and a white Oreo cookie glaze donut.

Like Moncai Vegan on Facebook. Investigate flight prices to San Diego. Eat the entire menu. Show little restraint in the face of massive donut selection. Be happy.

Remember when I lost my mind over the fact Lujuria Vegana cakes were being sold in Whole Foods Market Fulham? Check this post for all the glorious photos.

Since that blog post, it appears Lujuria Vegana creations have spread to Whole Foods locations all across the capital. On tweeting about seeing them in the Kensington store, I have received responses from people telling me they had also seen them in Piccadilly and Camden.

Toni of Lujuria Vegana had mentioned to me the vegan desserts would be creeping across London later this year, so it appears later is now!

Get out and get the best vegan cake in Europe.

As seen in Whole Foods Market Kensington

]]>https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/cake-spreads/feed/0fatgayveganTime to winhttps://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/time-to-win/
https://fatgayvegan.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/time-to-win/#respondMon, 02 Jun 2014 19:14:48 +0000http://fatgayvegan.com/?p=3608Continue reading →]]>Remember when I wrote about this tasty-sounding cooking demonstration? No?

Well, here is the quick recap.

Angela Malik is a celebrated food creator who has just opened a brand new cooking school in West London. This Thursday she is hosting a vegan Chinese food cooking demonstration class where attendees will learn some nifty food prep skills and eat some delicious plant-based food.

Sounds fab and the news gets even more enticing if you read on.

Angela has generously gifted me a pair of tickets to attend her Chinese at Home – Veggie Style vegan cooking demonstration this Thursday. Attendees will watch the creation of (and then eat) wood ear salad with coriander, pock marked old woman’s tofu and stir fried Chinese greens with sizzling oil.

Here are the simple rules for entering:

– tweet your favourite Chinese food dish with the hashtag #AngelaCooks– you must tag @AngelaMalik in tweet– you must follow @AngelaMalik– the winner gets a pair of tickets– the winner will be picked at random– comp runs from 8pm tonight (June 2, 2014) until 8pm tomorrow (June 4, 2014)– winner is responsible for getting to the event near Ealing Broadway

This is a superb prize. Each ticket is valued at £45 so that is one happy friend you will be taking along with you if you win.